Former Angel Prospect Is Grand Slam in Japan : Designated Hitter Van Burkleo Leads Seibu to League Title With 38 Home Runs

Ty Van Burkleo no longer takes the train home from work.

He stopped doing that last month, about the time he hit his 30th home run for the Seibu Lions of the Pacific League in Japan.

Commuters and fans who previously had glanced at him simply out of curiosity began descending in droves upon the 6-foot 5-inch, 200-pound Van Burkleo whenever he got aboard for the 15-minute ride from the stadium to his apartment in Kotesashi Heights--about 40 minutes outside Tokyo.

“When I got to 30 homers, it was like, ‘Wow, who is this guy?’ ” Van Burkleo said by phone from Japan. “All of a sudden, everybody knew who I was. It was a madhouse.”

The attention that now forces him to commute by taxi is in stark contrast to the anonymity Van Burkleo endured during 5 1/2 years in the minor league systems of the Milwaukee Brewers and California Angels.

It also arrived unexpectedly soon.

In June, 1987, after having been scouted by the Lions for more than a year, Van Burkleo became the first double-A player signed by a Japanese team for the specific purpose of developing him within its minor league system, so he could learn the Japanese way to play baseball.

But after spending just half a season beating the bushes in Japan last year, Van Burkleo, 25, has flourished this season in the Japanese big leagues.

Used almost exclusively as a designated hitter, Van Burkleo, who bats left-handed, hit .268 during the regular season with 38 home runs--including 4 grand slams--and 90 runs batted in. He helped lead the Lions to the Pacific League championship and will be in the lineup Wednesday when they play host to the Chunichi Dragons, Central League champions, in Game 4 of the best-of-7 Japan Series.

Mike Easler, Ben Oglivie, Doug DeCinces, Bill Madlock and Warren Cromartie are among the former major league players and foreigners, or gaijin , whom Van Burkleo out-performed statistically this season.

“Ty is open-minded, and he tried to listen to everybody who could help,” said Shin Kuzutani, the Lions’ director of foreign affairs. “We thought that he would take a little more time, but he learned much faster than we anticipated.”

Van Burkleo expected a swift transition when he said sayonara to American baseball and left with his wife, Chris, and their 2-year-old daughter, Britney, to seek his fortune in Japan.

The Japanese have been particularly pleased with Van Burkleo’s willingness to accept their disciplined training regimen. Their methods are often foreign, and uninviting, to the majority of American players who travel to Japan to finish their careers.

The Lions, for example, began their 2-month spring training on Shikoku Island in Southern Japan. No families were allowed and there was no access to any of the country’s $250-a-round golf courses. Van Burkleo and the rest of the players were required to take 1,000 swings a day.

“They count every pitch you swing at,” Van Burkleo said. “On the field, they mark where every ball was hit and whether or not it would be a base hit. There are six or eight batting cages and they have hired a guy to stand behind every cage and he counts each swing the guy takes.

“After practice, you go back to the hotel and take a shower, eat, have a meeting and go to a tent and take more swings until you get it up there right around 1,000.”

The extra work seems to have paid off for Van Burkleo, who graduated from Chatsworth High School, went on to Los Angeles Valley College, was drafted by the Brewers in 1982 and was released 2 1/2 years later.

“June 26, 1984, was the worst day of my life,” Van Burkleo said in 1985. “I was devastated. I told them I knew I wasn’t through.”

The Angels signed Van Burkleo the next spring and assigned him to Redwood, their Class-A affiliate in the California League. There, in 1985, he batted .276 with 10 homers and 52 RBIs. The next season, at Palm Springs, he batted .268 with 22 home runs and a league-leading 108 RBIs.

At 23, Van Burkleo was the class of Class A, but he wasn’t exactly blazing a trail to Anaheim Stadium where Wally Joyner was establishing himself as a fixture at first base.

But someone was noticing Van Burkleo’s progress. During his 2 seasons in Class A, Seibu became interested.

Among the many Seibu-owned companies are hotels, transportation systems, department stores, golf courses, amusement parks and a baseball team that has has won 4 of the past 6 Japan Series. The Lions are considered the most innovative organization in Japanese baseball.

In 1983, they became the first team to send minor leaguers to the United States, placing five players and a coach named Hank Wada with the San Jose Bees, a now-defunct independent team in the California League.

Wada, a catcher in the Lions’ organization for 19 years, coached in San Jose for 5 seasons. He saw in Van Burkleo a hitter with the power to thrive in Japanese parks that are no deeper than 395 feet in center field and 310 down the lines.

Van Burkleo was tearing up the double-A Texas League for Midland when Seibu approached the Angels at the beginning of May, 1987, and inquired about the possibility of acquiring him.

“We could have just said, ‘No interest’ and that would have been the end of it,” Bill Bavasi, the Angels’ director of minor league operations, said last summer. “Ty was having a hell of a year in Midland. Our feelings were, yes, he would have a chance to play in the big leagues in the States, but we felt we also knew it was a 50-50 proposition.

“He’s an excellent kid. Probably one of the best we’ve ever had. But he was at a minor league salary, had been playing for a few years and was married with a young daughter. If we had said no to Seibu, we were shutting down an opportunity for him to make a lot of money.”

Said Van Burkleo: “I kept saying to myself, ‘I’ll stay here and make the big leagues.’ Then I’d have a bad day and say, ‘Oh, I gotta get outta here.’ It was a mental strain.”

By the end of May, the Japanese were prepared to offer Van Burkleo a 2-year contract. He was earning $1,400 a month at Midland and the Japanese were offering a reported $65,000 for the first year with the possibility of making, with incentives, as much as $200,000 the second year if he made the big leagues.

“The Angels gave me all of my scouting reports and let me read them,” Van Burkleo said. “I was having a great year, but I wasn’t a can’t-miss prospect.

“I had my family to think about. I thought this was a good career move and it looks like it was,” Van Burkleo said.

Van Burkleo is aware that some people may still question his abilities. The Japanese emphasize bunting and play a less aggressive game than is played in the United States.

“I think some people underestimate the ability of the Japanese players,” he said. “Obviously, you don’t have the Cansecos or Goodens. But you do get guys who can run the ball up there at 90 m.p.h. All of the pitchers have good control and they all throw good forkballs.”

Bavasi has said that the Angels still consider Van Burkleo “part of the family” and that he could return to the organization “in a heartbeat” if he wanted to. Van Burkleo’s success has also generated recent interest from a few other major league organizations.

Van Burkleo said he would like to return and play in the major leagues but realizes that a guaranteed offer is probably not forthcoming. He also knows that he might have priced himself out of the market in the United States.

Kuzutani said the Lions will wait until December before talking to Van Burkleo about a new contract.

“He can play 10 more years,” Kuzutani said. “We expect him to come back.”

But top foreign players in Japan command million-dollar contracts, and Van Burkleo said he plans to seek a substantial raise.

“I have no idea what they’re going to offer,” he said. “But this season, I was the lowest-paid, highest-producing gaijin in the Pacific League.

“Right now, I’m just looking to help the Lions win the series. It’s been a great learning experience for me and my family here.

“In the event I go back to the States, be it this year or 5 years from now, I know I’ll be better off.”